The company’s CEO, Heather Bresch, is scheduled to answer questions about the EpiPen price hikes during the Wednesday hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Advertisement
In prepared testimony, Mrs. Bresch says Mylan has pored more than $1 billion into improving EpiPen and making it more available, and that the company reaps only $267 of the $608 list price, known in pharma-speak as the wholesale acquisition price. The EpiPen cost about $100 in 2009, but has increased to more than $600 since.
“It is essential that state and school policies ensure access to epinephrine auto injectors and training of school personnel to respond in a timely manner to students with life-threatening allergic reactions”, then-NASBE executive director Jim Kohlmoos said in a statement at the time.
“Therefore, we write to you today to join our Republican colleagues form the House Energy a& Commerce Committee in their September 12th, 2016, request that the Office of the Inspector General examine CMS [The Center for Medicaid and Medicare] oversight of the MDRP”.
Much of her testimony focuses on Mylan’s work to increase access to EpiPens.
Gayle Manchin, mother of Mylan CEO Heather Bresch and wife of Sen. Her husband has rejected any notion that his work as West Virginia’s governor and later senator crossed paths with that of his daughter at Mylan.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has subpoenaed Mylan as part of its own investigation.
In a news conference in Charleston, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said he had petitioned Kanawha County Circuit Court to force Mylan to comply with a subpoena issued August 26.
According to the attorney general’s petition, Mylan participates in the state’s Medicaid program and allegedly pays lower rebates than permitted by law, which subjects the company to a “potential Medicaid fraud action under West Virginia law”.
EpiPen jabs a dose of the drug epinephrine into the thigh to counter unsafe allergic reactions such as to peanuts, food allergies and bee stings. People usually keep multiple EpiPens handy at home, school or work, but the syringes, prefilled with the hormone epinephrine, expire after a year.
Morrissey said the company may have overcharged its Medicaid program by labeling the EpiPen as a generic drug, even though it is sold as a brand-name drug, according to Bloomberg. Mylan spokeswoman Nina Devlin said the company was cooperating with the investigation.
Critics have said the coupons, discount cards and patient assistance programs aren’t real solutions because many customers won’t use them or won’t qualify for them.
Advertisement
She says the company makes about $50 per pen after rebates, fees, materials and other costs are subtracted.
